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The Council for Sustainable Development will step up its efforts to foster community support and awareness of the principles of sustainable development, Council Chairman and Chief Secretary for Administration Mr Donald Tsang said today (April 18) after the first meeting of the council's second term.

"Building on the first engagement process on a Sustainable Development Strategy, and taking account of the lessons learned from that exercise, the council aims to enhance its outreach and engagement programmes in the coming two years and to encourage greater stakeholders' participation in setting a sustainable agenda for Hong Kong," said Mr Tsang.

He added that it was planned to issue the council's report on the engagement process, together with the first Sustainable Development Strategy for Hong Kong on waste management, renewable energy and urban living space before June. A further round of the engagement process would then start in the middle of this year, with stakeholders taking part in selecting the new priority areas for the strategy.

At today's meeting, council members also discussed the focus of its efforts in the second term. They agreed to put more emphasis on promoting best practices in sustainable development and reaching out to young people, especially when taking forward the Sustainable Development Strategy. In-depth studies on special sustainability issues will be considered.

Council members also agreed that current practices aimed at ensuring the transparency of the council's work should continue, and where appropriate be extended. These include uploading the agenda, discussion papers and digests of all meetings on the website of the Sustainable Development Unit (www.susdev.gov.hk). The agenda and papers for today's council meeting will be posted on the website within this week, and the digest of discussion at the meeting will be posted shortly.

Ends/Monday, April 18, 2005

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